KUWAIT, Dec 26, (KUNA) -- The world has witnessed many events during 2015, mostly painful and less fortunate for people.
The refugees' crisis has been the most impactful humanitarian cause this year, with scores of children and elderly die trying to find safe havens.
Violence was a key feature this year, while democracy established a foot-step in some countries.
Democracy:
March 10: Iran's Assembly of Experts selected Mohammad Yazdi as President.
March 30: Islam Karimov won presidential elections in Uzbekistan by garnering 90 percent of votes.
March 30: British Prime Minister David Cameron dissolved parliament and triggered general elections' campaigns.
April 12: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced running for the President as Democratic Party candidate for the 2016 elections.
April 21: 16 new ministers sworn in before Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
May 8: British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party won elections by a majority 331 seats, and formed a new government two days later.
May 25: Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski conceded defeat for Andrzej Duda.
June 15: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush announced he was running for US President for the Republican Party.
August 19: Turkish Prime Minister-designate Ahmet Davutoglu said he would not form a government after failing to form a coalition with the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
August 20: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced resignation and called for fresh elections.
September 12: Leftist Jeremy Corbyn named leader of the British Labor Party.
September 14: Ruling Liberal Party in Australia removed Prime Minister Tony Abbott from office and replaced him with Malcolm Turnbull.
September 25: US House of Representatives John Boehner stepped down from office.
September 27: The separatist coalition in Catalonia, Spain, won majority of seats in regional parliament.
October 17: Guinean President Algha Conde won a second five-year term.
October 20: Free Liberal Party won Canadian parliamentary elections.
October 26: Comedian actor Jimmy Morales won Guatemala's Presidential elections with 72 percent of votes.
October 29: Paul Ryan elected as Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
November 2: Ruling party in Azerbaijan won parliamentary elections, boycotted by opposition.
November 9: Conservative opposition won parliamentary elections in Croatia.
November 12: Turkey's AKP won 317 seats in parliament.
November 13: Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party won parliamentary elections in Myanmar.
November 23: Opposition candiate in Argentina Mruricio Macri won presidential elections by 52 percent of votes.
International Relations:
April 8: China and Vietnam agreed to solve maritime dispute over some South China Sea areas.
April 12: US President Barack Obama held historic talks with Cuba President Raul Castro in Panama.
July 27: The US and Turkey agreed to establish a zone on Turkish-Syrian borders to maintain security and stability.
August 23: British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond reopened British Embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
August 24: South and North Koreas agreed to scale down tension between the two countries.
September 18: Cuba appointed an Ambassador to the US, the first since 1961.
September 19: The US eased trade and travel sanctions on Cuba.
October 20: Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Britain.
November 21: Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi appointed as Director General of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Global Economy:
March 16: Turkey, Azerbaijan and Britain signed an agreement to build a natural gas pipeline to Europe.
March 17: Malaysia announced a new USD 1.5 billion airline with 20 new planes.
April 2: Ukraine signed short-term agreement to buy gas from Russia at discounted price.
April 6: Greece promised to pay 450 million euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a first installment of its loan despite the country's difficult financial conditions.
April 8: Dutch Royal Shell bought PG oil and gas company with USD 70 billion.
April 10: Japan's Nikkei stock market surged to 20,000 points, the first in 15 years.
April 11: British Sterling Pound dropped to lowest level against US Dollar in five years.
April 15: Finnish telecom company Nokia took over Alcatel in a 15.6-billion-euro deal.
April 16: Standard and Poor's classified Greece credit rating at c/ccc+ due to inability to pay debts.
April 20: China and Pakistan announced establishment of a USD 46 billion road and railway network.
April 24: Russia and Argentina signed a number of economic and energy agreements.
May 1: Milano Expo 2015 opened.
May 11: Pakistan got a USD 506 million loan from IMF.
May 12: Greece was forced to use emergency reserve account to pay up to 750 million euros in interests to IMF.
May 15: China invested USD 50 billion in infrastructure projects in Brazil.
May 20: Five major banks were fined USD 5.6 billion for manipulating currency exchange markets.
May 27: US Charter Communications took over Time Warner Cable in a USD 78.7 billion deal.
June 9: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) lowered 2016 global economy forecast to B-, anticipating retreat in US and Chinese economies.
June 10: Leaders of 26 African countries signed free trade agreement.
June 10: British government sold its 78 percent stage in the Royal Bank of Scotland.
July 31: Swiss Central Bank announced 50 billion Francs losses due to high appreciation of the Euro.
August 20: Greece paid back USD 3.8 billion of its debts to the European Central Bank (ECB).
August 22: International stock markets declined amidst fears of Chinese industrial slowdown.
August 26: Chinese Central Bank reduced interest rate by 0.25 points to 4.6 percent in a bid to assure international investors.
September 18: The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged.
October 6: The US, Japan and 10 Pacific countries signed free trade agreement.
October 20: China invested five billion Sterling Pounds in Britain.
October 24: Chinese Central Bank reduced interest rates by 0.25 points to 4.35 percent.
October 28: The IMF warned against economic slowdown in the South grand Sahara region in Africa.
November 1: Leaders of Japan, China and South Korea agreed to boost economic and security cooperation.
November 3: Chine unveiled new passenger plane.
November 15: The IMF agreed to include the Chinese Renminbi in the basket of major currencies.
November 18: Greece reached an initial agreement with the Eurozone countries for new bailouts.
November 23: American giant Pfizer pharmaceutical company announced a USD 160 billion takeover of Allergan.
November 25: Russia's Gazprom stopped gas supplies to Ukraine after Kiev failed to pay advancement payments.
November 26: The World Bank urged the international community to provide USD 16 billion to help Africa.
November 27: Nigerian oil company confirmed USD 250 million worth of pipes were stolen.
November 28: Russia announced economic sanctions against Turkey after it downed a military jets near Syrian borders.
Disasters:
March 26: As many as 150 people were killed when a plane of the Germanwings crashed over the French Alps Mountain.
April 26: More than 5,000 people were killed and over 8,000 others injured in a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal.
May 8: Seven persons were killed, including the Ambassadors of the Philippines and Norway, when a Pakistani military plane crashed over a mountainous areas northern Pakistan.
May 12: More than 40 people were killed in a new earthquake in Nepal.
May 23: More than 3,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania were infected with cholera.
May 25: Over 500 people were killed in a heat wave in India.
June 2: Up to 450 people were killed when their ship drowned in a river in southern China.
August 12: At least 120 persons were killed when a warehouse containing toxic chemical materials exploded in eastern China.
August 16: An Indonesian plane crash killed 54 people.
September 12: At least 89 people were killed in an explosion in a restaurant in India.
October 4: A mudslide in Guatemala killed 56 people.
October 18: At least 39 people were killed and thousands displaced due to a hurricane in northern Philippines.
October 26: More than 260 people were killed in a devastating 7.5 degree earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
October 31: Over 200 people were killed when a Russian passenger plane crashed in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.
October 31: Twenty-seven persons were killed in a fire in a restaurant in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
November 22: Ninety people were killed in a landslide in a mine in northern Myanmar.
Violence:
January 7: Twelve people were killed in an attack by gunmen on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
February 24: so-called ISIL militants kidnapped more than 30 persons from the Hazara group in southern Afghanistan.
March 28: Two Czech hostages were released after two years in Pakistan.
April 2: Up to 147 students were killed in an attack launched by Somali Al-Shabaab on a university northeast of Kenya.
April 18: A suicide bombing killed 33 people and injured more than 100 others at a bank in Jalalabad city, eat Afghanistan.
April 24: Pakistani human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud shot dead in Karachi, south Pakistan.
April 29: North Korea executed 15 persons, including senior-level officials, over charges of espionage.
May 13: Gunmen killed 43 people in an attack on a bus in Karachi, south Pakistan.
May 15: Boko Haram militants launched two shooting attacks in Maiduguri city, northeast Nigeria, killing 55 people.
May 22: The Turkish police arrested more than 60 persons under the charge of plotting against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
May 23: Gunfight between the Mexican security forces and armed gangs in the western Michoacan state, west Mexico, left 43 people dead, including one police officer and 42 suspected criminals.
June 13: Twenty Afghan policemen were killed in clashes with Taliban insurgents in the southwestern province of Helmand.
June 15: Suicide bombing killed 23 people and wounded more than 100 in Ndjamena, capital of Chad.
July 20: Bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, near the borders with Syria, killed 30 people.
August 8: A wave of bombings in Kabul killed 40 Afghans and wounded 400 others.
August 8: Five people were killed when gunmen stormed a hotel frequented by members of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in the capital city of Bamako.
August 17: A bomb attack killed 19 people and wounded 120 others in Bangkok, capital of Thailand.
September 16: Taliban movement in Afghanistan elected Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as new leader succeeding its founder and spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar who died in in April, 2013.
September 19: Turkish air attacks on PKK camps in north Iraq killed 55 suspected militants.
October 11: Suicide bombing killed 95 demonstrators and wounded dozens of others in Ankara.
October 24: Suicide bomb attack killed 22 Shiites in Jacobabad city, south Pakistan.
November 14: Multiple shooting and bomb attacks, claimed by ISIL group, killed 129 and wounded 350 others in Paris, prompting French President Francois Hollande to declare a state of emergency.
November 19: ISIL group announced execution of two hostages, a Norwegian and a Chinese who were kidnapped early in the year in Syria.
November 20: The UN Security Council adopted unanimously a resolution calling on the UN member states to take the necessary measures to combat the ISIL group.
November 21: Twenty one people were killed after gunmen stormed a hotel in Bamako, capital of Mali.
November 28: Suicide bombing, claimed by Boko Haram group, killed 22 Shiites in Kano State, north Nigeria.
Arms Race:
April 17: Sweden raised the ceiling of expenditure on defense to USD 1.19 billion in the coming five years.
April 21: Poland signed a contract on the procurement of US missiles worth USD five billion.
April 29: France enhanced its defense budget by EUR four billion.
June 11: Five African countries agreed to form a joint taskforce, led by Nigeria, to combat the extremist Boko Haram group.
July 14: Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, Britain, and the United States; plus Germany) signed in Vienna, Austria, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the nuclear program of Iran.
July 20: UN Security Council voted for Resolution No. 2231 to approve the JCPOA between Iran and the P5+1.
July 23: Turkey allows US fighter jets to use Incirlik Air Base for air attacks on ISIL group in Syria.
September 15: North Korea resumed operation of the Yongbyon nuclear complex which was shut down in 2007 as a result of an agreement by the six parties, namely the Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, United States, China, Japan and the Russian Federation.
September 18: The Japanese National Diet (parliament) voted to amend the post World War II constitution and sanction greater overseas role of the military, including the deployment of troops outside the country.
October 15: American President Barack Obama delayed withdrawal of the remaining 5,500 US troops from Afghanistan until after 2016.
November 2: Iran suspended the uranium enrichment centrifuges pursuant to the provisions of the JCPOA.
November 23: British Prime Minister David Cameron announced increase in defense budget by GBP 12 billion to fortify Britain against threats.
The Refugee Crisis:
April 21: Nearly 800 illegal migrant drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their ship capsized off Libya.
April 23: Italy announced a state of war against smugglers of illegal migrants and urged the European Union to adopt a tougher stance on smugglers.
June 10: Norway agreed to host 8,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2017.
August 7: The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) sounded the alarm that the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece soared by 750 percent over 2014.
August 11: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced plans for establishing a buffer zone in the northern Syria border areas to protect Syrian refugees with support from the United States and other international main actors.
August 20: Britain and France inked a security pact to tackle human trafficking from the Calais refugee camps, north France.
August 22: The Italian navy rescued some 3,000 refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean off Libya.
August 27: Dozens of migrants were found dead inside a refrigerated truck on a highway in Burgenland state, west Austria, near the borders with Hungary.
August 28: More than 200 migrants drowned and dozens of others were rescued after their two ships capsized off Libya.
August 29: The United Nations issued an appeal for international solidarity with migrants and prevention of forced repatriation of migrants to their conflict-hit countries.
September 12: A UN report said that one million Syrians were forced to flee Syria in 2015 amid the escalating conflict.
September 13: Twenty eight migrants were found dead on the shores of Greece.
September 15: Twenty two migrants drowned in the Mediterranean after their boat capsized near the southwestern shores of Turkey.
September 15: Hungary declared a state of emergency in the border areas in a bid to stem the tide of illegal emigrants.
September 16: Hundreds of refugees arrived in Croatia en route to northern EU members after Hungary sealed its borders with Serbia.
September 17: Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon sharply criticized Hungary for its "unacceptable" treatment of Syrian migrants arriving in border areas.
September 18: Hungary accused Croatia of infringement on its sovereignty and non-cooperation with the EU after Croatia allowed migrants to cross into Hungary.
September 19: Hungarian Minister of Interior Istvan Simicsko summoned reservists to tackle the crisis of refugees arriving in the border areas.
September 27: Turkish navy recovered 17 bodies and rescued 20 migrants after their boat capsized near the southern shores.
September 30: The world's seven most industrialized countries and members of the GCC agreed in New York to commit USD 1.8 billion to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to enable it to address the crisis of the Syrian refugees.
October 9: The UN Security Council adopted a resolution allowing the EU member states to seize boats of human smugglers.
October 17: Hungary sealed shut its borders with Croatia in a bid to stem the tide of illegal emigrants seeking to cross into West European countries.
October 17: The Turkish navy recovered 17 bodies of migrants and rescued 25 others after their boat capsized near the southwestern shores of Turkey.
October 18: More than 2,700 migrants crossed Slovenia into Germany and Austria.
October 21: Dozens of refugees arrive aboard two boats in the British Air Force Base in Akrotiri, east Cyprus.
October 22: Slovenia announced that 12,600 emigrants arrived in the country just 24 hours, a record high in the daily arrivals since the start of the refugee crisis in Europe.
October 24: Presidents of Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania met in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, to discuss strategy for addressing the refugee crisis on the advent of winter.
October 25: Twenty-nine migrants were found dead on the Libyan shores.
October 26: The EU leaders agreed during an emergency summit in Brussels, capital of Belgium, to establish new camps for additional 100,000 refugees.
October 29: The Greek navy recovered bodies of 21 migrants and rescued 138 others after their boat capsized to the west of the Aegean Sea.
November 2: A UN report showed that more 218,000 refugees arrived in Europe in October.
November 9: Rioting at the refugee and immigration detention center on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, northwest Australia, killed a refugee and wounded a dozens of others.
November 11: The Turkish navy recovered bodies of 14 emigrants after their boat capsized off the western coast of Turkey.
November 13: Britain committed GBP 275 million in aid for Turkey to accommodate millions of Syrian refugees.
November 14: Oxfam International, an Oxford-based umbrella of 17 organizations working in 94 countries to end the injustices that cause poverty, accused Bulgarian law enforcers of committing abuses against refugees, including extortion, robbery, physical violence, threats of deportation and police dog attacks.
November 27: Seven Children drowned in the Aegean Sea near the Turkish coasts.
November 28: Macedonia started building a barbed wire fence along the southern borders to block the ways of emigrants arriving from Greece.
November 29: Forty people were injured when the Greek riot police engaged with emigrants attempting to cross into Macedonia.
International Awards:
February 23: Winners of the 2015's 87th Academy Awards (Oscars) included Birdman (Best Picture), Eddie Redmayne (Best Actor) and Julian Moore (Best Actress).
May 20: Innovative Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai won sixth Man Booker International Prize.
May 24: French film "Dheepan" won the Palme d'Or award at the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival.
October 1: Australian crime fiction writer Michael Robotham won British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year for his novel "Life or Death."
October 3: Japanese Takaaki Kajita and Canadian Arthur B. McDonald won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.
October 5: China's Tu Youyou, Irish William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura jointly won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
October 7: Paul L. Modrich, Tomas Lindahl and Aziz Sancar won 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
October 8: Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich received 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.
October 9: Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet received 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.
October 12: Scottish economist Angus Deaton awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
October 14: Jamaican writer Marlon James won 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel "A Brief History of Seven Killings."
International Sports:
January 12: Portugal's and Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo won award for Best Player in The World 2014.
February 1: Serbian Novak Djokovic won the 2015 Australian Open.
April 27: FC Bayern Munchen won the German Bundesliga for the 2014-15 season.
May 2: Italy's Juventus won fourth straight Serie A title.
May 3: Chelsea won English Premier League title for 2014-15 season.
May 16: Paris Saint-Germain won the French league for 2014-15.
June 7: Swiss Stan Wawrinka won the 2015 French Open (Roland Garros).
July 12: Serbian Novak Djokovic won the 2015 Wimbledon.
July 31: Beijing won bid to host 2022 Winter Olympics.
August 2: South Sudan became member 206 to join the International Olympic Committee.
August 27: Argentine and Barcelona's striker Lionel Messi won 2015 Best Player in Europe award.
September 14: Serbian Novak Djokovic won the 2015 US Open.
October 14: British Lewis Hamilton won 2015 F1 championship.
FIFA:
May 27: In Zurich, Swiss authorities arrested seven top FIFA officials, including current vice presidents Jeffrey Webb and Eugenio Figueredo on alleged charges of corruption.
June 3: The FBI questioned FIFA President Sebb Blatter over corruption charges.
June 4: Chuck Blazer, former member of FIFA executive committee admitted receiving bribes for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup in a testimony published by the United States Department of Justice. Blazer claimed he also facilitated a bribe in the awarding of the 1998 World Cup, held in France.
September 25: Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter, who is suspected of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation. Blatter denied wrongdoing through his US attorney.
October 8: FIFA's ethics committee confirmed it has provisionally banned Blatter, FIFA vice chairman Michel Platini and secretary general Jerome Valcke from all football activities for 90 days. FIFA presidential candidate Chung was also handed a six-year ban.
Deaths:
March 28: Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2011, died in Stockholm at the age of 83.
March 29: Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore and its first prime minister died at the age of 91.
April 13: German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature Gunter Grass died at the age of 87.
May 10: Turkey ex-president Kenan Evren died aged 97.
June 2: Charles Kennedy, who was leader of the British the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, died at the age of 55. (end)
bs.gb.hb